Physical and Cognitive Development in Middle Childhood

1. Physical and Cognitive Development in Middle Childhood

2. Body Growth • 2 to 3 inches in height • 5 pounds in weight each year • girls are slightly shorter than boys from 6 to 8 then trend reverses • girls have slightly more body fat; • lowest portion of body growing the fastest during this time frame • between 6 and 12 years, all 20 primary teeth are replaced with permanent teeth

3. Health Problems • common vision problem-myopia-nearsightedness nearly 25% children affected • Myopia is affected by heredity ad experience • less ear infections-Eustachian tube becomes longer and narrower • malnutrition-prolonged affects can cause physical growth problems, low test scores, poor motor coordination, inattention and distractibility

4. Obesity • About 25% of American children • greater than 20% over average body weight based on age, sex and physical build of child • Causes • genetics • low-cost, high fat foods, and family stress • food as a reward system • lack of physical activity

5. Obesity • children that are obese have lower self-esteem, report feeling more depressed and display more behavioral problems than their peers • There is an increase in type II diabetes in children in recent years • Treatment for obesity should be a family program and focus on changing behaviors

6. Bedwetting • Nocturnal enuresis -bedwetting that occurs during the night • most cases cause is failure of muscular responses that inhibit urination or hormonal imbalance that permits too much urine to accumulate during the night • treatment-urine alarm; special pants (underwear)

7. Illnesses • higher range of illnesses during the first 2 years of elementary school; exposure to more sick children and immune system is still developing • Asthma-most frequent cause of school absence • boys, African American children and children that were LBW, smoking parents, parents that have had asthma and children that live in poverty have the greatest risk

8. Injuries • Common in middle childhood • auto and bicycle accidents very common • school-based safety programs a must at this age • be careful of toy related injuries

9. Motor Development and Play • running, jumping, hopping, and ball skills more refined • fine motor skills improve-writing (starts off larger ad gradually decreases in size) • drawings show gains in organization, detail ad representation of depth • games with rules are more common-children have a better concept of fairness, and justice • PE classes very important-builds self esteem, and physical activity

10. COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT • Piaget’s Concrete Operational Stage • 7 to 11 years • thought process is more logical, flexible and organized that in early childhood

11. Conservation • children can conserve at this stage-one of the most important developments • clear evidence of operations-mental actions that obey logical rules • Decentration-focus on several aspects of problem at once and relate to them • Reversibility-the ability to mentally go through the series of steps in a problem and then reverse the direction returning to the starting point

12. Hierarchical Classification • now can group objects into hierarchies of classes and subclasses • collections are common in middle childhood • Seriation-order items in length and weight and height • Transitive inference-ability to perform seriation mentally

13. Spatial Reasoning • 7 to 8 years-mental rotations-align self’s frame to match that of a person in a different orientation; identity left and right for positions that they do not occupy • 8 to 10 years-can give clear, well-organized directions for how to get from one place to another using “mental walk” strategies.

14. Limitations of Concrete Operational Thought • Children still need concrete information for the most part • abstract concepts are still difficult • Horizontal decalage-conservation problems in certain order;number first than length than mass than liquid